Now that the holidays are upon us (happy holidays!) and the year is about to end, we at OSNews thought it time to finally lift the veil a little bit on the next version of OSNews - OSNews 5. I've hinted at this next version of OSNews here and there in the comments, but we think it's time to make it all a little bit more official by taking in some initial feedback.

They're not enemies. They're people who take themselves too seriously. A better idea is to suck it up and not take voting too seriously - or maybe consider the alternative that those comments deserved to be downvoted. People these days don't have enemies, or foes*, as the Slashdot system allows for...

* I've had two people on Slashdot foe me. All for comments I made that didn't buy into their extreme libertarianism. Says something about them I think

* I've had two people on Slashdot foe me. All for comments I made that didn't buy into their extreme libertarianism. Says something about them I think

I don't think I have any foes here as usually my comments go un-voted, but I've noticed that whenever I make a comment critical of anything to do with Linux or somehow positive towards Microsoft or Windows the comment is instantly down-voted -- there are no counter-arguments to anything I say or anything, these comments are just uniformly being down-voted by whomever the people are who do it. On the other hand, praising Linux or bashing Microsoft and/or Windows generally yields positive votes regardless of whether the comment actually adds anything to the discussion or even has a point to it. I chalk such behaviour to childishness and insecurity and just shrug it off.

The above in mind, however, I still personally view the voting system as a positive thing in general; the well-behaved people seemingly far outweigh these "voter-lurkers" and usually does give a semblance of balance as to what comments are worth paying more attention to than the others. It could be better, yes, and there's multiple ways of going about it, but even the current implementation works for me. Alas, YMMV.

Humans have a pack mentality, which means like minded people tend to group. This is why some communities are full of zealots, some full of trolls and some full of open minded adults who enjoy a more engaging discussion.

Sadly OSNews isn't without its bias, and that bias (bar a few examples) tends to be anti-Apple and anti-MS. In fact just anti-corporations in general. But at least -in my opinion at least- this site is more open minded than most (or maybe that's just my bias showing through?)

I'd say "grow up". If people vote you down, it is because they disagree with you. They vote you up because they agree. Simple as that really.

Personally, I appreciate everyone not writing a comment when voting. It would make for an insane amount of comments, probably all having the same argument/opinion that we've heard a thousand times before, making it an even bigger pain to read through everything just to actually find anything insightful.